Well. It´s come.‏

I´m not sure to be honest if they´ll let me write next week. Just in case, we´re going to treat this like my last letter (and next week will just be a tad bit awkward at the worst) 

I´ve been here in Costa Rica for 2 whole years. Preaching the true gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to all the people I could. I´ve cried with the people, I´ve laughed with the people, I´ve been frustrated with the people, and I´ve learned to love the people of Costa Rica. I truly feel as though I´m at home here. I love Costa Rica with all my heart; the food, the culture, the people, the language... everything! But now, I must return to my other home. 

I know with all my heart that this is the true church, restored by our loving Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that we have a prophet in our day, who speaks with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and guide us, that we may follow sound doctrine. I know that the Bible and the Book of Mormon, as well as Doctrine and Convenants and the Pearl of Great Price, along with all else that our Heavenly Father loving gives us through His prophets, is the very Word of Him, our God our Eternal Father. I testify that only through faith in Jesus Christ, and sincere repentance of our shortcomings, as well as baptism by the Aaronic Priesthood and the reception of the Holy Ghost by the Melquisedec Priesthood can we really return to their presence. There is no other way. I declare with all my love and with personal experience to accompany it that ¨the worth of souls is great in the sight of God¨, and any man woman or child who wishes to know if these things are true can, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Through sincere prayer we can come to know the will of our Heavenly Father, and likewise come to know of the truthfulness of the gospel. My humble prayer is that all come unto Christ, and become free of the world and from the sadness, angers, weakness, frustration, loneliness, and filth that we feel here, and that we may become even as Christ is. Let us be an example of the believers. Let us keep the faith (or start our faith, if need be) and fight the good fight. ¨If we keep the faith in the great God, we will see ourselves together further on¨(88 Placentero nos es trabajar) God be with you, ´til we meet again. 

Many thanks, and all my love,

Elder Lohberg 

Last official P-Day - was given permission to see the ocean :) Super excited to see the rest of the pictures from this trip next week :)  Randall said they had to leave at 4:15 am this morning to get there - they visited a beach that is near the Panama boarder - it took them 3 1/2 hours to get there from Turrialba!!

Give it all you´ve got‏

This week went reallly well, seems like it flew by... we were able to visit some inactives who were here when the church started in turrialba.. and we started teaching them and they were super receptive. I´ve learned to love finding the tender mercies the Lord offers us, finding people 100% chosen by the Lord and put into our pathway, our lives so that we can help them. Our current President, President Arredondo told us that he believes every single person we meet in our lives, work, church, schooling, day to day activities is there for a reason. We need to talk to them and teach them the gospel. Help them receive the truth. I believe it, let us strive our hardest to speak with all those that we can, and help them receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

With all my love,

Elder Lohberg

Well‏

It´s all coming to and end (at least as a fulltime missionary) I´m working as hard as I can with my comp. We´re seeing a ton of success in our area still! Lots of investigators are coming to church and we´re finding many new ones as well who seem promising. I know that the Lord is in charge of this work.. all He asks is that we do our best when we participate in His work and as we try He magnifies our labors and He edifies us at the same time. I feel as though I´ve grown so much as a missionary, I still have a lot more things to get better at, and I know that God will help me as a I keep trying to improve and change. I´ve been studying a lot lately the stories in the Book of Mormon and trying to memorize scriptures. We had a lesson in elders quorum where the president explained all about why it´s important to read and learn from the scriptures and he also explained why it´s a good idea to memorize them. Memorizing scriptures can help us overcome temptation, overcome stress, sadness, and anger and can give many more opportunities to lift up and teach others. I encourage all of you to make a strong habit of reading, learning from, and memorizing scripture, that you may be a light to the world.

Love,

Elder Lohberg

P-day sight seeing with Randall to see the volcano Turrialba!

Aaron: Hi mom. This week was cool, we went today to the volcano Turrialba.. as close as they let us get and took photos. I dont want to share what president told me, its sacred;; DD maybe later on. We had 8 onvestigators i church and romario confirmed that he wants to serve a mission.. super cool
The mission phones agot turned off by a member in the church servies on accident, not all of them but just a bunch.. he was supposed to turn off a few that didnt have any missionaries using them.. but ithink he got mixed up or something and so tons of phones got turned off.. including ours... pretty rough but oh wells. 

President apparently is doing okay but they havent told us much.

}

I might need to get an ingrown toenail taken out in the states... doesnt seem like i´ll be going here just to not lose a week of work, so it seems like i´ll have to do it there.. but not really sure yet.. at least i think thats what will happen, waiting on the nurse to give me the final response.. so not sure how much that costs but i think it´ll have to happen:(

I ws kind of thinking about trying to get a cheap motorcycle inonce were in utah, I have a frieend in the mission whos from utah who bought one for 300 bucks and he said it was a great idea, he uses it to go up into the mountains and to go on shorts distances

Mom: Hey! I'm here 

the email didn't refresh so I didn't know you were on!!

So - is President back already or is the area 70 still acting as president right now?

Mom: I understand - no worries - I just was curious since you had mentioned it but then didn't expound :p

Ya - I heard the volcano area is closed off - but I'm sure you got closer than most people do :)

Was it cool or? is it still erupting?

Mom: that's weird about the phones - so are they all back on now? Randall had said he had to loan you his phone for calls a few times.  Crazy mistake eh?

Mom; Cool about Romario wanting to serve a mission - he will have to wait a year though right? So what about his girlfriend? Do you think that will cause any problems there?

Mom: you still on Aaron??

Aaron: Yeah sorry mom.. So romario has to wait a year yes, the relief society president is working hard with his girlfriend she was inactive and now she´s going really well now too.. i think he´ll make it! 

The volcano was 100% clouded over, couldn´t see anything, but it was cool to be up there, and say that I went. 

The phones still arent turned on, at least ours isnt. we´re working on getting them to fix that. Yeah its still erupting

Aaron: he 70 i herte still (I think he is saying "the 70 is here still" since President Hayes is in the states seeing a doctor - an Area 70 is filling in as the mission president at the moment), what are your thoughts on the toenail problem and the motorcycle?? 

Mom: ya I didn't see it at first - then I read it!

Yes - I can call and see if there is anyone who can see you during the time you are at home - if not - then you will have to do it in Utah - but not sure how that will work with your school stuff :/

As for the motorcycle - I had thought about that at one point but also was worried about you and accidents! So many kids out there get killed on bikes because there are so many crazy utah drivers! But - we can discuss that I guess when you are home :p

Aaron: I´m pretty sure it´s ingrown too be honest im not sure.. the pain hasnt been horrible yet.. maybe its not.. i´ve had the member here cutting and ripping at it for 8 weeks haha.. so it might just be like destroyed.. the last time was the worse.. each time it gets worse hahaa.. could just be that. But we´ll see.. i´ll probably need to have to it cut. 

He told me that he just bought a cheap bike that didnt go fast, and he only went on back roads streets and highways, he said he´d never go on a freeway and I wouldn´t either.. but he also said for short distance to get to the house and work and everything it was nice because gas was cheap and it was super easy to get his license.. he said he got it in American Fork haha.. 

Mom: ya well your apartment isn't too far from campus - I had thought about just getting a moped or something like that for you - but truly - you are taking the kia so not sure if you need anything else?? But we can discuss it.

I will call I guess and see if there is anyone who could see you that first week you are home - if not - then I will have to figure something else out I guess :/ hmmmm

Is president Hayes back in country then or is he still in the states?

Aaron: he in he states as far as I know

Mom:  were you able to see any of the pictures I sent you?? What did you think of the house layout? 

Aaron: Yeah I saw it, it´s cool. I gotta go mom, stayed on alittle long. I love you have a good week, we´ll talk next week! 

Mom: ok - I will talk to you next week

No general - but a few pictures from a friend :)

Aaron: Hi mom

Mom: I'm here! how are you?? How has your day been? What did you do? - you are on pretty late today.

Aaron: Yeah we went to San Jose and for traffic got home late.. i was buying gifts there... i found a Costa Rican chess set that they say is handmade.. i almost considered buyin it for grandpa.. i talked the guy down to 20 bucks from 32.. but grandpa hasnt wrote me or anything and its technically your money.. i think we'll go back before i leave to buy more souvenirs that are cool.. it was a good week.. lots happened.. highlight was Romario who told me he wanted to serve a mission the 20 year old soccer player and the low light was a visit with the bishop to visit joseluis who got baptized too and he had slipped into alcohol again that day... in 4 months i had never seen him drink and that day he fell.. super sad but he understood how to repent and is in the process now. Sunday he talked to he bishop

Mom: that is sad for him - hopefully he can find strength in the gospel and be able to get back on track.

Ya - don't worry about grandpa - get things you want.  If YOU want the chess set - buy it for YOU.

Did you have fun today though over all??

Anything else happening?  Any word about Pres. Hayes yet? do you need me to transfer more money into your account? oh and did you find out about the luggage at all?

Aaron: They pay for the luggage sorry. Maybe a little bit more money just in case so I don't have to ask in emergency if i find something cool for yall.. how big is the outside of the new house.. and where exactly is it?? American fork?? I'm talking to marcoss exwife trying to get is contact info so that we can transfer his records to the states.. rough stuff

Mom: ok sent you a screen shot on my other email as I couldn't get this to work in here - so the house is Northwest of Utah lake - you will see on the map I sent "Talus Ridge Edge Homes" north west side above lake - that is where we are at - on the bottom right side you will see Orem - Provo is just below that. Just to give you bearings - northeast is Salt Lake.

The house is 3 stories - from the front it will look like a 2 story - but it has a walkout basement - which we will have you help dad finish at some point :)

Aaron: The place is called talus ridge then?? 

Mom: the developer is Edge homes - they call this area Tulus Ridge - there is a street there called that.  I think our new ward will be called Sunrise Meadows 3rd ward 

Aaron: Hmmm interesting. I have 3 monutes left mom not going to write general mail because too much of a pain on tabletbut next wek i will fpr sure (I've corrected the rest of the things he wrote for the most part - because a lot of it looked like this! - the tablet he gets to write on at times is extremely hard to read from)

We are writing wih randall. 

Dad: ok sorry we didn't get to talk longer (this is dad) Mom says we love you take care of yourself.

Aaron: Love you both so much, have a good week!!! I love you. 

Another week bites the dust!‏

This week went really well, a tiny bit stressful, we had 3 baptisms, each one was from a different family, so we had to coordinate and plan a lot to get it all to work out. It went well. The Spirit was strong, and they`re now members of the Church of Jesus Christ. These last few days I`ve been reviewing the Liahona from General Conference again, I know that each one of the leaders who spoke in that General Conference were called of God. The Spirit is so strong listening to them, and reading their words. I love finding new investigators who tell us (I don`t know what it is, but I feel at peace when we`re with you, what is it?) The Spirit is our constant companion as members of Christ`s Church, and the people can note that. Trust in the companionship of the Spirit as you do your best to serve God and lose yourself in the service of others. The Spirit will touch the hearts of your friends and loved ones and they we`ll receive the restored gospel. Never lose that hope. I appreciate all the letters of love and support and hope all is well for each and every one of you. Until next week! 

Love,

Elder Lohberg

Aaron: hi mom

Mom: Hey! Sorry I didn't see that you were on!

I've got about a half hour before I have to head out for the funeral

how are you?

sorry I was making breakfast for Sam & Kari - they are here visiting this week :)

Aaron: I`m good sorry mom I was reading your other letter. I`m good. I heard that Latu passed away, super sad to hear that. Must be super hard for Mosese, is he going to serve a mission?

I`m cool lets do it, I`m down to go to the temple and be temple worthy and worthy of the blessings. I`m not perfect still, but I`ll do my best effort always. 

Mom: ya it's super sad - I don't know if Mosese will serve or not - but Malaki wants to and I know Ma'ake does as well.  

Truly this experience has made me reaffirm my desires for an eternal family - doing whatever it takes for us to have that blessing.  I'm truly grateful for each of you kiddos who have grown into amazing young adults who love the Lord and want to serve Him!  Truly - it is the biggest blessing I could ever receive here on earth!!

Tell me about your week! I have about 10 minutes or so before i have to head out :(

Aaron: It was good we had 3 baptisms Saturday, super stressful getting it planned well, more than anything for the members haha but i found calm in it all. President was there, he gave me some good advice and left yesterday for the states.. he`s sick and needs to find out what he has and the doctors here don't know. 2 got confirmed Sunday, 1 next week and he`s a priest age young man.both his little brothers told me they want to be baptized now haha=D so he`ll probably baptize them this month, the moms still behind a bit, doesn`t feel ready. But in time in time. She invited her friend and her son to come, but they live like 30-40 minutes in bus from the church, so it`d be hard for us to visit them, but we`ll see if they get there! =D The work is progressing,I can`t complain. another guy came, he had gone 4 years straight with his family but he couldn`t get his divorce in Nicaragua to go through so that he could get married to his future wife who lives with him and all his kids.. so he and she went to church for 4 years every single week, but he got offended one Sunday and they had a whole year of not going and no one had visited them. Then we showed up=D And he finally went to church again, it was awesome. His family didn't this week but they all went 2 weeks ago without him.. Now I just need to see them all together! =D 

Mom: wow that is so cool!! Miracles can happen! You can be a part of that - you ARE a part of that! how cool to see people change in the gospel!! It's amazing how people can change and the joy that comes into their lives because of the light of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of the gospel.  

That's frightening about President - hopefully they will find out what is happening with him quickly.

i have to leave now - but if you reply - when I get down there I will message you from my phone until the meeting starts.  

LOVE YOU!!

Aaron: Don`t worry mom, I love you, say hi to them for me, and tell them I`m sorry for what`s happened, but remind them for me of the promise of eternal families. Elder Holland said ¨Some blessing come fast, some come slow, and some don`t come until heaven, but for those who keep the commandments of our Heavenly Father, they come.¨ I`m certain of that. Christ knows their pain, and suffering and He loves them, trust in Him. 

Sad and Happy.‏

Today officially marks the first day of my last change here in the Mission in Costa Rica. It`s a sad feeling but it has a little happiness underneath. I love being here, I love the people, I love sharing the gospel. I hope to learn everything I can while I`m here and find all the people the Lord wants me to find before I leave. 

I want to say thanks for all the support you`ve given me throughout my 2 years here. Hopefully my emails haven't been too annoying, especially with their bad subject titles haha. 

Thanks for everything,

Love, 

Elder Lohberg



Aaron: hi mom

Mom: Hey you!!  So....last transfer staying in Turrialba??????

Aaron: yup, sorry i was reading everything 

Hmm. This week it appears we have 3 baptisms.. hopefully everything goes out well=) 

I got sick last night, and today i woke up pretty sick with fever and everythin 

so today we probably wont do anything.. i might buy parts to fix our shower head. i have 5 months to shower in cold water.. i got used to it but now it`s cld in the morning and i`m sick so i might fix it hehe. 

This Saturday baptisms are Jose Luis he`s a wood worker, he makes tables and stuff like that, he`s 62 years old

Romario, he`s the soccer player, 20 years old he`s cool

Rolando he`s 16 he`s part of a group of 4 people we`re teaching a mom and her 3 kids.. he told us he wanted to get baptized.. setting the goal for his fam and he`ll probably end up baptizing the rest of his family next month but not 100 percent sure 

Mom: oh I'm so sorry you are sick :/  Cool about the baptisms - and how cool would it be for this kid to be able to baptize his family! I'm sorry you aren't feeling well :(  Will the mission pay to fix the shower? or do you have to pay for it yourself? Or does Randall have to fix it? How does that work?

Aaron: Technically Randall i think would have to fix it, but he hasnt wanted to hehe because it makes the light bill a lot higher. I`ll use mission money to buy the part, it only costs like 2 mil 4 bucks to fix it i think.. not too bad. And I`m going to fix it. 

Mom: well for sure do that - why take a cold shower in cold weather if you don't have too!! 

So - do you still have a fever now you think? do you feel achy? 

Aaron: yea i have a fever.. my teeth ache and my body and my eyes

 and im congested and the cough is starting SATAN GO AWAY heehe 

Mom: I'm so sorry :(  No chance for any sort of flu meds there I'm sure :( so drink plenty of fluids so you can get stuff out of your system.  Chicken broth would be good too and rest - lots of rest!  I'm sorry you're not well.  Glad you aren't having changes with feeling yucky! small blessings :)

Aaron:  i love being here, I love it. I`m going to cry a ton I think when I leave, or if not I`ll go into denial and cry a ton in the house haha. 

Mom: so I talked to the realtor here in Washington today (the one who is selling our house) and we are going to list the house I think August 18th - so just before we head out to Utah - She said if we need to push it out a few days because we don't want to deal with the house being shown while we are still here that would be fine too.  

I'm going to start packing up books and stuff that I can easily do without for a while and get things ready I guess.

I can't remember if I ever sent you any pictures of the house and what it will look like?  I can send you pictures from the model home - we will have a similar look but with some differences as we wont put in all the options they did.

I can also send you a map of where it will sort of be located as well if you are interested.  but no worries if not as there is PLENTY of time for you to see all of this :)

Aaron: send the pictures I have 15 minutes still!! 

Mom: Not sure if you can go to this link or not?  Try it - this is the model home - again - we won't have all the finishes this has - but some of it for sure!! we will not have a fireplace - and obviously we will have garage doors where they have the office now.

could you read the book pages I sent to you?? not sure if you are able to open them or not?

Aaron: im going to print them out. 

It`s a pretty nice huse, but it doesn't have a garage or anything? And with windows so big couldn`t people break in pretty easily??? How much square feet is it? 

Mom: it will have a 3 car garage - so like how this does but this one has windows where the garage door is because that's the model home office :p

Jessie says hi!! I'm on the phone with her right now!

It's actually 2650 finished square footage and if we do the basement it would be 4400 square feet

Aaron: HI JESSs. HEY THANKS FOR REMINDING ME. HaPPY BIRTHDAY JESSIE!!! MAN ALL WEEK REMEMBERING AND I GET HERE AND I FORGET!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSIE!!! 

gotta go mom love you bye! Have a good week! 

Mom: ok Aaron - hope you feel better soon!! best of luck with the baptisms on Saturday!! LOVE YOU!!


**SIDE NOTE: Randall messaged me on Facebook and this is his account of the choking from last week:
Hey Kim!!! How have you and the family been?

Good! How are you guys doing?

Thank you for saving Aaron's life he told me about choking! How frightening!

We're fine thanks!!! You're welcome... I don't know but that night i went to help em with a rat trap (we having some little problems with those disgusting animals by the way..) because i felt like a kind of impression to do it... It was weird... At the beginning i thought it was coughing normally but then i could see that he wasn't breathing... To be honest i was scared... Thank God he came back... Of course he was very scared...

Yes! I'm truly grateful! So frightening! I told him to be careful! He only has a few weeks left! So be careful so you can come back to me! Hopefully he will be careful

You're right!! No worries!! He will be careful!! We will try to help him!!! Yeap he only has a few weeks here!! We're going to miss this guy!!

no general again :(

Aaron: Hey i don't understand, you bought a house? You walked into a house and said, this is the one! But then you said lot? I`m like what... is there a house or no? haha. That`s crazy, huge change of plans he? 

The areas going good.. WE had a baptism Saturday, and she got confirmed yesterday. The soccer player is set up for the 25th, and he could also MAYBE be accompanied by 1-5 more people, haha, we`re trying to see how they progress. We had 4 investigators in church, it was good! I talk to zach sometimes but i haven't asked him that. That`s cool with the schedule. I want to play soccer with my niece hehe!! not to excited about buying more gifts hehehe, i`ve always been bad for buying gifts. Okay yeah, send me the Other side of Heaven next Monday (Changes) I could have changes, we really never know. I don't think so but who knows. 

Mom: we bought a house :)  But it is going to be built - so we had to pick a lot and pay for that - so it's a new house basically and it will be built this year.  It's not what we had planned to do - we planned to just buy a house (already built) but buying a new home has advantages (like things don't have to be fixed, roof doesn't need replacing etc) but disadvantages are - the basement isn't finished and it takes time to build it.

Mom: That's AWESOME!! Was the baptism Saturday Josemaria's daughter??  Pretty cool about the other baptisms coming up too - hopefully those follow through :)  I'm so happy that you are enjoying these last few weeks as a missionary!!  

We are excited to move to Utah to be honest - to be closer to all of you guys - have a family dinner once in a while instead of once a year :p Will be great I think!!

Aaron: I`m not going to write a general mail today.. the comp is fetchin slower than slow. It`s going through a super slow phase right now and i don't have time to write. We`ve been killing rats in our house, I killed 3 already, the 4th one got away.. and we`ll see if we can kill more, who knows. Yeah jose marias daughter. I almost died on Saturday, we were trying to set a rat trap and Randall was with us, he felt something to go upstairs to our apartment, and we couldn't set it so i got mad, and he was trying and telling a joke while i drinking water, and i like laughed coughed drank or something,. and the water got stuck right in my throat it was a horrible painful feeling and I couldn`t breathe or swallow or anything and i felt like iwas dying it was a TERRIBLE feeling, to not be able to breath, and randall saw.. .my comp just stood their looking at me haha. so Randall came and started smacking my back and doing like the heimlich and everything, and i spit the rest of the water out.. passed the whole night with adrenaline in my body and shaking and stuff.. i actually thought i was going to die.. it was just horrible as a feeling. but the baptism was sick. we`ve been doing good, cant complain, cant complain. 

Mom: OH MY GOODNESS!! that is frightening!! I'm glad Randall could help you!!  

RATS?? YIKES!! 

You never told me - are you wearing your permathrin regularly?? I hope so!! Start if not as the Zika virus is pretty serious and you can be a carrier of it - dont' want your future children harmed :p

I understand about the general email - I may try to put some snippets from our little bit of chatting going back and forth together and send that - will see 

Aaron: I do use it, but i stick mosquito bites either way.. like 1-2 bites every day or every other day. 

Yeh. I thought I was going to die mom, haha scariest moment of my life, but i didn't feel like worried about dying just that I wanted to have a family some day hehe here on earth =) 

If i`ve got Zika diay.. oh wells.. I cant do anything about it.. the Moquitos keep biting me. Pray a ton 

Mom: well I'm going to call the CDC and see if we can get you in when you get home to be tested - I don't think they know how long it stays in the body at this point.

I'm glad Randall didn't message me Saturday about this - and I'm super glad I didn't get a call from President with bad news!! Wow how frightening!!  BE CAREFUL! you only have a few more weeks to go!! make it home to me bud!! I LOVE YOU!!

Aaron: Love you too mom, I was just reading about Zika it seems like it only stays in the blood for 6 months? Or idk hahahaha, fetch.. i`ll start putting repellent and see if it helps.. but it`s dumb because if i cover my legs where they bite me most, they bite my knees, or they end up biting me in other crazy places, like on my fingers and hands.. 

Gotta go! Tell everyone I love them!! Have a good week mom!!! =) Stay safe! 

Mom: I will!! LOVE YOU!! Be safe!! have a great week!! Will keep good thoughts going your way - hopefully your baptisms come through!! excited for you!!